32 PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 



ability, the rise and progress of different other companies, down to 

 the year 1823 ; dwelling upon the difficulties they had to encounter, 

 in combatting prejudice and ignorance : a large synoptical table was 

 submitted to the institution, displaying the state of each company 

 in 1823 ; the total results of which are : there were then four com- 

 panies, viz, The Chartered company, the City of London company, 

 the South London company, and the Imperial company ; the com- 

 panies had six stations, employed 721 retorts, carbonized in the 

 year 40,158 chaldrons of coal, had 59 gazometers, 16,307 public 

 lights, 40,834 private lights, and 265 miles of main ; their expended 

 capital was 1,458,500, and their annual rental 179,540. 12s. 9d. 



Before the lecturer proceeded to the concluding part of his excel- 

 lent paper which we regret the limits of our little work preclude 

 us from reporting more in detail he observed, perhaps the annals 

 of this science do not record a more splendid instance of gas illumi- 

 nation than that which occurred on Jan. 28th, 1825, at a fete given 

 by the Lord Mayor of London, at the Mansion house, to H. R. J 1 . 

 the Duke of York, at which many noble and distinguished persons 

 were present : on this occasion there were in use, within and without 

 the building, 3,001 separate lights, which were kept steadily burn- 

 ing from dusk on the evening of the 28th, until daylight on the 

 following morning. 



In 1833, there are nine different companies, who have 2,660 

 retorts, carbonize per year 77,313 chaldrons of coal, have about 120 

 gazometers, 25,600 public lights, 56,480 private lights, about 600 

 miles of main, and expend in capital 2,082,700. 



To supply these London companies with coal, it would require 

 38 ships, each of 200 tons burden, to be constantly employed ; if 

 the gazometers were collected together on one spot, with intervals of 

 6 feet between each, they would cover a surface of 6 acres, and the 

 aggregate rental may be considered as about 350,000. Besides 

 these nine companies there are two others, one of which has chosen 

 for its sphere of action the territories beyond the British islands, 

 whilst the other has turned its attention to the provinces of the 

 United Kingdom ; of this latter company the lecturer is an engineer. 



The concluding part of the lecture consisted of the following des- 

 cription of a new mode of generating heat, invented by Mr. J. O. 

 Rutter, of Lymington. 



It was during the winter of 1832,3, whilst occupied in the man- 

 agement of the gas works at Lymington, in Hampshire, recently 

 erected there by Messrs. John Barlow and Co., that Mr. Rutter, the 

 patentee of the invention, had an opportunity of making daily 



